The SBC Media team is out in force at SBC Summit this week. Live from Lisbon, the SBC News, iGaming Expert, SBC Americas and Payment Expert teams are on site and will keep you updated with the major happenings across the Greatest Show in Gaming.
The team on site today includes Ted Orme-Clay, Viktor Kayed, Jessica Welman, Joe Streeter, Ted Menmuir, Conor Porter, Rachael Kennedy and Callum Williams.
Keep checking back throughout the week with insights from the floor, comments from speaker and the breaking news coming out of Lisbon as the event unfolds.
4:30 pm: That is a wrap, see you tomorrow
The conference content is winding down and another night of productive networking is about to get underway. That is it from us for the SBC News desk today, but we will see you tomorrow for another full day of updates.
4:10 pm: “Online poker is broken”
Former founder and CEO of PokerNews and current CEO of i3Soft John Caldwell spoke on one of the Tech Academy stages about the problems he believes exist in the poker ecosystem. In his discussion, he noted that the game has become too difficult to win, games take too long and too many people are using AI to take advantage of that ecosystem rather than improve it.
“Online poker is broken,” he stated plainly.
His discussion was part of a trio of entrepreneurs presenting products that embrace AI to improve the customer experience across a range of gaming verticals including poker and sports betting.
3:30 pm: Behind 1XBet’s new push for player protection
1XBet wants to be seen at the forefront of the discussion around player protection, said Simon Westbury, the company’s Strategic Advisor. The company is ‘trying to bring value’ to the industry via its player protection investments and efforts, he said, stressing the importance of not ‘judging people by their past’.
The firm is announcing its International Player Safety Index, the first of which is focusing on Western Europe. Amid intense regulatory and political debates around gambling across multiple countries, Westbury asserted that ‘communication, clarity and consistency’ will be vital in ensuring that the industry maintains a positive relationship with regulators.
2:30 pm: Fans don’t watch sports anymore, they live it
MoveUp Media presented a series of case studies diving into the changing dynamics of sports consumption. The firm’s Chief Revenue Officer, Sebastien Risse, emphasised that around 25% of millennials are now ‘unreachable’ by traditional media.
Striving to reach the some 70% of sports fans who watch matches via mobile to some extent or another, MoveUp Media hopes to grow the visibility of regional teams to a national level and create monetisation opportunities for said clubs, leadership explained at the Summit.
1:45 pm: Building for the $50 smartphone crowd
The realities of building mass-market iGaming and sports betting technology for African audiences were laid bare by the panel “Africa… A Continent on the Move”.
Though commercial prospects appear strengthened by African markets reaching more than 70% smartphone penetration, most markets remain in their elementary phases.
“In African markets you quickly realise that building your product purely around market research is a lost cause,” said Simon Burrell, Co-Founder of BettorGroup.
Anton Rublievskyi, CEO of Growe, agreed, having learnt from experience:
“The challenge for us as a technology provider was that you couldn’t build for iPhone users; you had to build for the $50 smartphone. These devices might have 4G, but the connection is patchy, the hardware is slow, and stability is poor. That forces you to completely rethink the product. You can’t load heavy apps or complex streaming; instead, you design for lightweight browsers, low-data features, and seamless integration with legacy channels. Even today, the $50 smartphone defines much of the African iGaming market. If your platform doesn’t work there, you’ve already lost half your customers.”
George Jadabri, CEO of Heropicks, highlighted the dynamics that drive localisation in African markets, noting they are very different from the factors and triggers seen in Western markets, often involving tough choices with no easy narrative.
“In Africa, localisation goes far beyond language. You have to understand customer habits and how they access technology. For many, betting still starts with SMS or USSD because that’s what is reliable, cheap and available in their daily lives. If you ignore those entry points, you risk alienating a huge share of the market. The real challenge is blending those traditional channels with the mobile-first future.”
1:15 pm: Gaming CEOs offer their thoughts on AI
The CEOs of five of the biggest companies in the industry came together to exchange perspectives on where exactly AI sits within the gambling sector – has it actually brought a positive change?
Joanne Whittaker, CEO of BETFRED, said that while the technology is important, she ensures that BETFRED stays reliant on traditional foundations. She went on to even caution against overusing AI, mentioning the AI-written emails she goes through every day that we’re all painfully aware of.
Neal Menashe, CEO, Super Group, shared the belief that younger generations are a core element of the industry’s long-term sustainability. As these people are generally more tech-savvy, this also naturally makes AI a key segment not to be overlooked.
According to Jesper Svensson, CEO of Betsson Group, AI has proven to be immensely effective when solving problems that were impossible to solve 10 years ago, while Daniel Taylor CEO of Flutter International, added that AI is giving challenger brands a chance to stand against the big legacy players.
1:00 pm: Alea and Continent 8 announce new partnership
Justin Cosnett, Chief Product Officer, Continent 8 Technologies, and Alex Tomic, Founder of Alea highlighted the importance of the collaboration to help operators and suppliers combat cybersecurity threats and attacks across iGaming and online sports betting. C8 Secure, Continent 8’s dedicated cybersecurity division, will assist the aggregation platform in bolstering its security position for its partners.
Tomic warned that several gaming companies are falling short of where they should be when it comes to cybersecurity and the new partnership aims to help organisations address that shortfall.
12:45 pm: LATAM Leaders: Latin America first – the home grown operators reinventing the game
Should Argentina have only one regulation instead of 24? Operating in Latin America requires more than knowing about localisation from country to country, but knowing deeply how the population differs from each other geographically too. To understand the singularities of Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, SBC gathered platform providers, operators, regulators and affiliates to discuss each country’s market.
Sebastián Salazar, founder of Estelar Bet, positioned himself as one of the most seasoned presences in the market during the panel. Despite the difficulties of building the brand during the pandemic, Salazar recalled: “We started with no money, nothing, no structure.”
The solution was to begin with small partnerships, including sponsoring women’s teams. “That strategy was a real success.” In the company’s first year, it was already sponsoring nine women’s football teams in Chile.
“The other strategy was payments,” he recalled. Salazar said the goal was to provide customers with something similar to a land-based casino, but in their homes, since the pandemic prevented them from going to casinos.
“If we pay even faster than others in the market, we’ll succeed. It’s not a marketing strategy, it’s an operations strategy. While other countries took three hours to pay, we paid in twenty minutes,” he stated.
12:35 pm: Randi Zuckerberg talks Facebook culture
Taking on Lisbon’s world stage following football legends is no easy task, admitted Randi Zuckerberg, digital marketing expert and member of the founding team at Facebook.
Zuckerberg reflects on how her career and personal life collided in her 20s, a front-row seat to the birth of social media and its generational shift in how audiences communicate.
She had moved to New York to be close to Broadway, until her brother Mark called with a simple request:
“I need some help on digital marketing.”
“I signed a contract on a napkin. I knew I would be working for free — and that was OK,” she recalled. “But when I asked for the budget, all we had was a box of T-shirts.”
That box became a symbol of the early Facebook ethos: resourceful, irreverent, and unafraid to try new things.
“We were young and scrappy, so I thought our marketing had to reflect that,” she says. “We started by literally giving away T-shirts and creating word of mouth. It wasn’t fancy, but it worked.”
Scrappiness drove Facebook’s culture. “You couldn’t just sit and answer emails. You had to spend 12 hours on something completely new — something wild you’d never normally give yourself permission to do,” she explains. Many of Facebook’s best-known features came out of these late-night sessions, often created by unexpected people in unexpected roles.
For Zuckerberg, the lesson is clear: “You don’t need to wait for someone to tell you what to do. If you’re alert and scrappy enough, you can invent the next big thing and be the one running it.”
12:30 pm: Gaming, the financial sector and missed connections
The biggest takeaway from Payment Expert Summit’s first session came from LeoVegas’ Christian Reinheimer, who highlighted a key problem: the gambling and financial regulators don’t always talk to each other.
This creates a gap where gaming operators are told to do things -like verify transactions – that aren’t technically possible with the tools provided by financial regulators. The panel agreed that the industry needs to work together to bridge this gap, educate regulators, and drive these changes forward.
12:00 pm: Check out the live coverage of the Payment Expert Summit
Payment Expert Editor Rachael Kennedy offered her POV as she takes the stage to chair today’s Payment Expert Summit. You can follow along with Payment Experts on live reporting of the stage here.
11:30 am: The legends take the stage
The headliners of the charity game took to the Super Stage for a conversation with presented Kirsty Gallacher for solo and group conversations about the power of sport and philanthropy.
SBC CEO and founder Rasmus Sojmark says, to date, the initiative has raised over €700,000 so far for a range of charitable groups, including the Red Cross. The window to donate is open throughout the show, including an upcoming auction.
The significance of the charity match was underscored by former footballers, who emphasised that the global game can bring hope to those in the direst of situations.
“The world needs the positive power of football more than ever,” said Sojmark.
“It’s an honour to have hosted this match with such legends I have admired, and who recognise the peace and goodwill that can come from football – a message we will continue to carry forward.”
10:30 am: The checkered flag is out!
In a morning race at the SOFTSWISS track, Formula 1 legend Rubens Barrichello, now a non-executive director for the platform provider in Latin America, chose his famous red car once again to face off against SBC CEO and founder Rasmus Sojmark.
In an exciting 10-lap race, the former Ferrari driver showcased his incredible racing skills, crossing the finish line first to claim victory.
10:00 am: Welcome to Lisbon!
The gates are open and the crowd is filtering in to the Feira Internacional de Lisboa. This year’s event boasts eight stages of conference, including the Super Stage at MEO Arena, where some of the star footballers from last night’s Legends Charity Game will soon appear to kick off the conference agenda.
